i 
THE GOSSAMER SPIDER.* 
BY DR. G. LINCECUM. 
DECEMBER is, in Texas, the month for ballooning spiders to 
emigrate. Webster says, “ gossamer, a fine, filmy substance 
like cobwebs floating in the air, in calm, clear weather, espec- 
ially in autumn, and is probably formed by a species of spider.” 
Pretty good for a dictionary maker. But he didn’t know how it 
happened to be floating in the air. 
Sure enough, that fine, filmy substance is formed by a little 
spider. I have seen them making it. It is a balloon, and if 
Webster had caught one of those floating locks of gossamer 
before it reached a landing place, he would have found the little 
aeronaut and half a dozen young ones aboard of it. The bal- 
loon is the plan adopted by that particular species of Arachnid, 
to scatter widecast its young ones. 
This species of spider constructs nets and snares, and, like 
many other species of the family, its net is circular, very regularly 
and systematically constructed, and thoughtfully placed in an open 
passage way, seven or eight feet from the ground between two 
bushy trees, and above the contingency of being broken by a 
roaming cow or loose horse. 
In setting and establishing the two first brace lines between 
the two trees it has selected for its net, it displays much sagacity 
and ingenuity, with a thorough knowledge of the powers of the 
wind, and the best possible method and position to avail itself of 
its uses. Climbing up the tree situated to the windward, it takes 
Position, at the proper elevation on the point of the longest twig 
ìt can find that projects towards the other tree of its selection ; 
ape Spinning one of its gossamer webs of the proper length, 
Patiently waits for a breath of air to waft it across the vacant 
“peo of ten to twenty feet and lash its viscid extremity to some 
Projecting twig or leaf of the opposite tree. It holds the line in 
its hand, feels when it strikes, and instantly making the home end 
» Strikes out boldly on the microscopic thread, lets go another 
as she travels, and is soon observed lashing down the ends 
oan ri author to the Smithsonian Institution and published by per- 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 38 (593) 
